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The Magnificent Marble Machine
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The Magnificent Marble Machine
The Magnificent Marble Machine is an American television game show. Contestants partnered with celebrities to answer trivia questions and gain control of an oversized pinball machine. The program premiered on NBC on July 7, 1975 at 12:00 pm ET, replacing the game show Blank Check.
Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley packaged the program, with Robert Noah as executive producer. Art James served as host, and Johnny Gilbert was the announcer. This is one of the few Heatter-Quigley programs that Kenny Williams was not involved with.
Two contestants competed, one a returning champion, each paired with a celebrity partner. In the first half of the game, the teams had to identify the name of a famous person; place; thing; or title; frequently involving puns or other wordplay, that were displayed on a large electronic marquee, similar to one found on a pinball's backbox display. The players were shown blanks on the display's bottom line denoting the number of words and letters in the answer. A clue then crawled across the display's upper line. If no team buzzed in once the clue was revealed, letters of the answer then filled in at random as time progressed. For example, with the clue "He's center and he's square", and blanks displaying "#### #####", the correct answer is "Paul Lynde". James occasionally gave an additional clue before the main clue scrolled across the marquee.
For any given question, only the contestant or the celebrity was eligible to buzz in. This alternated with each question, and was indicated by lighted panels in front of the eligible player. Correct answers each scored one point. Five points won the game, and the winning team played "The Magnificent Marble Machine" in the bonus round. Later in the show's run, the rules were changed, so that it took only four points to win.
The winning team played the show's centerpiece: a giant pinball machine measuring 20 feet high and 12 feet long.
To start each bonus, a plunger was pulled to launch a giant pinball into the machine. The team member who launched the ball would also man a button on the right side of the machine while the other would do so on the left side. These buttons controlled the machine’s flippers, of which there were four (two at the bottom of the machine and two in the middle). Two pinballs were played, with the champion launching the first ball and the celebrity launching the second after the teammates switched positions.
The team accumulated points by hitting bumpers, noisemakers and lights with the ball. Hitting any of the seven large numbered bumpers won the contestant a prize, with bumpers two and three together earning a larger prize, such as a car or trip. At some point during the series, a bonus prize was added for hitting all seven numbered bumpers at least once.[citation needed]
Originally, each bumper and other noisemakers scored 200 points. Producers audited the score by watching the tape to ensure that each scoring feature had registered, but scoring errors increased week by week as the machine aged. The rules were eventually altered so that only the seven "thumper bumpers" added 500 points for each hit, with nothing else scoring. There were also two “out holes”, one at the center of the machine and one in between the bottom flippers.
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The Magnificent Marble Machine
The Magnificent Marble Machine is an American television game show. Contestants partnered with celebrities to answer trivia questions and gain control of an oversized pinball machine. The program premiered on NBC on July 7, 1975 at 12:00 pm ET, replacing the game show Blank Check.
Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley packaged the program, with Robert Noah as executive producer. Art James served as host, and Johnny Gilbert was the announcer. This is one of the few Heatter-Quigley programs that Kenny Williams was not involved with.
Two contestants competed, one a returning champion, each paired with a celebrity partner. In the first half of the game, the teams had to identify the name of a famous person; place; thing; or title; frequently involving puns or other wordplay, that were displayed on a large electronic marquee, similar to one found on a pinball's backbox display. The players were shown blanks on the display's bottom line denoting the number of words and letters in the answer. A clue then crawled across the display's upper line. If no team buzzed in once the clue was revealed, letters of the answer then filled in at random as time progressed. For example, with the clue "He's center and he's square", and blanks displaying "#### #####", the correct answer is "Paul Lynde". James occasionally gave an additional clue before the main clue scrolled across the marquee.
For any given question, only the contestant or the celebrity was eligible to buzz in. This alternated with each question, and was indicated by lighted panels in front of the eligible player. Correct answers each scored one point. Five points won the game, and the winning team played "The Magnificent Marble Machine" in the bonus round. Later in the show's run, the rules were changed, so that it took only four points to win.
The winning team played the show's centerpiece: a giant pinball machine measuring 20 feet high and 12 feet long.
To start each bonus, a plunger was pulled to launch a giant pinball into the machine. The team member who launched the ball would also man a button on the right side of the machine while the other would do so on the left side. These buttons controlled the machine’s flippers, of which there were four (two at the bottom of the machine and two in the middle). Two pinballs were played, with the champion launching the first ball and the celebrity launching the second after the teammates switched positions.
The team accumulated points by hitting bumpers, noisemakers and lights with the ball. Hitting any of the seven large numbered bumpers won the contestant a prize, with bumpers two and three together earning a larger prize, such as a car or trip. At some point during the series, a bonus prize was added for hitting all seven numbered bumpers at least once.[citation needed]
Originally, each bumper and other noisemakers scored 200 points. Producers audited the score by watching the tape to ensure that each scoring feature had registered, but scoring errors increased week by week as the machine aged. The rules were eventually altered so that only the seven "thumper bumpers" added 500 points for each hit, with nothing else scoring. There were also two “out holes”, one at the center of the machine and one in between the bottom flippers.